Midnight Club 3 Dub Edition Multiplayer Hands-On

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Ride shotgun with us as we take Rockstar's hot racer out in multiplayer mode. New screens and movies too.

By Jason Allen

We finally got a chance to jump into some Midnight Club 3: DUB Edtion multiplayer on PSP and so far it's as sweet as pie! The game runs pretty smooth and the level of detail they managed to pack in here is looking nice, really showing off what the system can do. Outside of the slow load times (something we're hoping to see fixed when the game ships), the actual game had little to no lag when racing. We weren't playing to full 6 player capacity, but nevertheless, everything was running pretty smooth with the 4 players we had (Ad hoc only. No online infrastructure mode).

As far as the detailed scenery, you see everything from maroon awnings in front of doorway entrances of buildings, to lights in upstair offices. You may not have much time to sit there and take it all in as your frantically mash toward the finish line, but it's nice to know it's there. Let's just say I had a hard time putting the game down when it was time to go.

The race types mirror the console versions to a tee. There are the traditional races like Ordered races that have you tearing all over the city, guided by yellow arrows that show you where to go. You have to hit all the hit points in the proper order to finish your laps. The map in the corner highlights where the coming checkpoints are located ahead of you, so knowing the shortcuts is crucial to your success. I was going up against one of the games testers that had been playing the game for months, so he murdered the competition. The subtleties in the geography can throw you off if you're not familiar with the city. You might have to take some funky turns that are easy to blast by if you're not careful.

If you're hanging behind but manage to catch up with one of you opponents, there are ways to turn the tide of the race in an instant. You can pick up various attacks and defensive powers in the form of power ups that give the game a Twisted Metal kind of feel. You can hit someone with a freeze that seals them in a block of ice and paralyzes them for a few seconds. I can't explain how infuriating this is if you're the one winning and you get hit with one of these things. It pays to find a car your love and learn the how to control it skillfully to avoid getting hit with these inhibitors. Out maneuvering an opponent can make or break your progress. Another attack you can use will hit your opponent with a red lightening bolt that reverses all their controls. Imagine how that goes over with the person in first place. All I can say is that a lot of cursing ensues.

Some of the other races like Paint feel ideal for a quick burst competition if you're in the company of other PSP owners. Basically you and your team members race around a given city, trying to hit different checkpoints to change them to your team's color. If you run up on a checkpoint that's already been changed, you can drive through it and change it to your own. The first team to "paint" (thus the name of the race) a predetermined amount of checkpoints scattered around the city wins the competition. Again, players benefit from having a good knowledge of the city they're competing in. It's get really fun with you're outright battling someone and hitting them with all the various power-ups you've picked up.

Capture the Flag is one of the hottest racing types MC3 has to offer. It plays just the way you'd imagine in a first person shooter, expect you have cars. It's absolute mania! You basically race around the city grabbing flags from different check points. Once captured, you have to race the flag to another check point for the drop off. A little translucent flag hovers above your car as you run about, indicating that you indeed have it. When other players see you with flag icon they can run up and ram you with their car which transfers the flag to them. At that point you have to chase them down and ram them back to get the flag again.